Friday, February 5

Alpine Miniatures have released this set featuring both an SS soldier
and the figure representing the controversial figure of Joachim
"Jochen" Peiper in the time of the battle of Kharkov in 1943. Peiper - an SS commander during WWII was tried and
convicted for being in command of troops who participated in the “Malmédy
Massacre”. Well we will cut past these other considerations and show you the figures
built up in today’s preview…

This twin set of figures are both in 35th scale
and both come with two head choices. Sculpted by Taesung Harmms and painted up
in this instance by Toshihiro Sano. We thought we would give you a look at
these soldiers just on their release… A little first about the prime subject of
this set. Joachim Peiper and especially of the time this figure is represented –
in the Russian front at Kharkov in 1943.

Joachim "Jochen" Peiper was born in 1915 and lived
until 1976. From early beginnings as a hard man and early member of the SS
organization he rose to the height of SS Lt. Colonel (SS-Standartenführer) in
the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, and at one time was
adjutant to the leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler from April 1938 to August
1941. Peiper was best known for leading the section of “Kampfgrüppe Peiper”
which spearheaded the assault in the Ardennes in 1944 - commonly known as “The
Battle of the Bulge”

By the end of his military career in 1945, Peiper was the
youngest regimental colonel in the Waffen-SS, holding the rank of
SS-Standartenführer. An intelligent man and well read – Peiper had many friends
in the Nazi party but was never himself a member. Because of the contradictions
of his character he has become an enigma with WWII historians and modellers.

At the time of the battle of Kharkov in 1943 Peiper was a SS-Sturmbannführer, he was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold for his
achievements in February 1943. The medal proposal showed well what the fighting
was like in those days:

“In Stawerowka the battalion was ordered to take Zigderowka.
The mission was executed by night against heavy resistance and an enemy
battalion was routed, four 7,62 guns, an infantry gun, 10 mortars and many
machine guns and hand guns being captured and destroyed. Peiper advanced
immediately towards Kasatschij Maidan, encountered an enemy battalion on the
march and executed a hasty attack. Here, he inflicted heavy losses on the enemy
and took Kasatschij Maidan. From here Peiper prepared his battalion for the
attack on Jeremejewka, attacked it at dawn against heavy resistance and took
Jeremejewka. Exploiting the confusion among the enemy, the battalion advanced
on Leninskij and broke the last resistance. By an immediate advance, he
inflicted heavy losses on the enemy which was fleeing through open fields.”

“The battalion destroyed one T-34, six guns 7,62 and
captured 300 horses. Three sledge columns were routed. The enemy casualties
amounted about to anywhere from 800 to 900. SS-Sturmbannführer Peiper has distinguished himself in all these
fights by a sensible command of his battalion and personal bravery and has
proven himself worthy of the Deutsches
Kreuz in Gold. On March 14 1943 the operation to seize Kharkov was
complete. To complete the German victory, SS-Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper and his battalion raced to the
north, attacking Belgorod, the last major centre of Soviet resistance in the
Ukraine, which fell to him on March 18 1943, and establishing contact with the
Wehrmacht élite Großdeutschland
Division. Image: SS-Sturmbannführer
Jochen Peiper.”

Some pictures of the clothing and setting with some story
are good – but does it all tie in with these figures? Let’s have a look…

These two figures come as singles or as a set in Alpine
Miniature’s little plastic lime green box. Mine came straight from Alpine themselves
and they always are wrapped safely and tracked. I mention this because Alpine
are now shipping their figures directly as well as you being able to buy them
from their distributors.

The light grey resin has only small (tiny) amounts of excess
material on them that I actually did not see until I blew up these pictures to
look closer at the detail. The figures themselves are very sharply moulded and
there are a few engineering tricks in them to help you secure them in place
correctly. Smart engineering and good sculpting and casting are all ticked –
now on to each figure…

Joachim Peiper in
Kharkov

#35199

1/35th scale

Sculpture by Taesung
Harmms

Boxart by Toshihiro
Sano

This figure of Peiper is in 35th scale and cast
in six parts of grey resin. This figure bears quite a good likeness to our
subject which is much harder to do than just any regular soldier. Maybe he
would sell pretty well as he is an interesting man and always in the thick of
the fighting in WWII. Like all alpine Miniature’s figures, he has the choice of
two heads with the same face but wearing different hats.

The two choices of head gear supplied in this kit are either
the M43 brimmed cap or the “Schirmmütze”
officers' visor cap (the older style) which here is suitably battered and
rumpled. Officers like Pieper – the old Hares or long serving soldiers wore
their caps with pride and often made them look “worn in” by taking out the wire
in the brim of the cap. Giving it a folded and squashed look which served as a
bonus in working inside cramped armoured vehicles – this was a common trait of
the officer corps in the SS and Wehrmacht and in virtually every photo taken of
him, he's wearing some item of non-regulation kit.

The second choice is not as standard. On closer inspection
this cap is fur lined, probably a tailored conversion to an M43 einheitsmütze. At first I thought this was his hair in the
sculpt poking through the side of the hat but on closer inspection it can be
seen to be a slim layer of fur. It is pretty amazing in this scale to replicate
this, not only the fur but the likeness of Peiper’s face is captured. The cleft
chin and angular nose with the brim pulled over the eyes like in many pictures
of the man in action. I must also mention that Peiper’s hair is finely detailed,
as are the death’s head and German eagle on the peaks of both hat choices.

The torso is dominated by a one-piece, seven button reversible?
Panzer coveralls that again were probably custom made to appear like panzer
overalls with the added warmth or just with an added collar – I think the
former. The exact origin of this coat I can't tell for sure.Notice the fur on the lining of this coat and the sideboards that are very finely detailed and the field binoculars on his chest. All good for depth on this figure.

It does however resemble this picture below with all of the
features including the field optics in there Peiper is the one standing on the
left, next to him are Dinse and Westerhagen

Pieper was not a stocky
figure, and this sculpt shows a quite slight in man in this fur lined outfit –
he is noticeably thinner than his comrade which would be realistic in life and
it’s here in this sculpt. Notice the circular stitching on the officer’s belt
which pinches his one- piece outfit nicely at the waist on the front and the
back.

You can see closer both the fur lined collar and shoulder boards of this uniform and that Peiper’s right in the hand is stuck into his pocket of his
padded overalls. These are suitably pinched at the waist where they are
gathered by his two pronged officer’s belt...

...and his pants sit loose at the feet over his short boots.

The pistol is supplied
with a notch on the holster and a notch out of the figure to locate and hold
it.

Both of the two arms of this figure are supplied on a separate
casting block. The interesting part of these is the hands of this figure that
are clasping a map in his hand by the looks of it. The open folds are clearly
shown and an added point of depth again on this excellent figure of Peiper.

The arm and map joins securely at an engineered joint for both

Here hs is put together - firstly the M43 einheitsmütze cap choice

with the “Schirmmütze” officer's visor cap..

SS Panzer Crew Winter

#35200

1/35th scale

The pictures show the
figure with 2 different heads.

Sculpture by Taesung
Harmms / Boxart by Toshihiro Sano

This figure is again sculpted by Taesung Harmms the seven
parts of this figure are cast just as well as the Peiper figure with sharp
detail and features we will look at in a moment.

This Panzerman of the SS is seen in pretty typical late war
winter gear. A reversible parker over thick padded winter pants keep him warm
while these are tucked in at the boot. He also wears a warm scarf tied at the
front of the neck. He certainly looks protected against the cold. He is also
tellingly just that little broader and with a slightly larger frame than the
Peiper figure which makes sense as Peiper was a thinner man. The parker would have been over a jacket anyway which adds to him being slightly larger.

The parka is the reversible type with one side grey and the
other in winter white - just like the pants he is wearing. The drawstring waist
with ties hanging loosely behind and under the twin holed M-34 officers'
leather belt the figure is wearing. The lower pockets also show that this
parker has been studied in depth by the sculptor, details like the drawstring
around the hood and the large flap that the jacket is buttoned up to and the
front are there. The folds of the jacket in the figure are realistic and not
overdone with the high belt on his waist pinching it all in on the front and
back.

Again the thick officer’s two pronged belt holds his
clothing in at the waist – this creates more depth and wrinkled texture to the
torso. The bottom of the jacket sits over the pants. The pants are also of the
reversible type with the padded knees and the drawstring at the waist with the
ties hanging down as well as small drawstrings at the bottom of each leg. The
figure is grounded off with some leather officer boots.

He has his binoculars at the ready – looking at something in
the distance and you can see with his warm woollen gloves.

These gloves are
also cast onto the same block with the pistol which again is notched to fit
into a socket on the figure’s back.

When you remove the arms and join them to the hands if you
have secured them correctly the arms can be glued on this way. I would however
join the hands at the cuffs instead as it gives you more wriggle room. They fit
snugly in sockets provided at the wrist joints.

Again we get the choice of two heads with this figure – on
with the M43 peaked cap and the other with the side worn M42 Feldmütze cap. This sported the death’s
head of the SS tankers and German national symbol on it. I like the lifelike
effect the painting and the sculpting by Taesung Harmms has achieved here.

Just as much attention has gone into sculpting this mas as
with Peiper. The hair of the man is fine, as are the death’s head and German
eagle on the peaks of both hat choices. and the features on his face are just
as realistic. In fact, I like this figure just as much as I like his comrade.

Here hs is put together - firstly theM43 peaked cap choice

and with the M42 cap choice

Joachim Peiper Kharkov
Set

#35201

1/35th scale

Sculpture by Taesung
Harmms

Boxart by Toshihiro
Sano

This set of two figures is sold as a single or as a pair.
The fact they are both looking at something in the distance and Peiper with the
map makes them complement each other quite well as this set.

I have put these two together with the alternate heads to
give you the different permutations of this set together. I think you can see
echoes of these figures in some of the reference pictures in this review.

These two figures are very well thought out, composed and sculpted.
As usual the sculptor Mr Harmms has done a great job of quality control and
these are great for a winter scene or maybe next to a Marder or a halftrack with his fellow officer from Peiper’s
brigade at that time?

Adam Norenberg

Thanks to Alpine for
sending this to us to put together in a review - check out Alpine
Miniatures site for more info on their stuff and now to buy directly from
them (free shipping over USD$50)..

Also if you want to
see a couple of REAL modellers work look at these pics of Sculpting of Taesung
Harmms Painted by Toshihiro Sano – these pictures show the real potential of
these two figures…